Hi everyone! My name is Ashley, and I am a stay at home mom to two girls, Paislee, 3 and Keely, 1. My husband is in the Coast Guard, and is currently stationed at a Coast Guard unit on Camp Lejune. We have been married for five years now and have spent two of those years in Alaska, where Paislee was born, and two in Maine, where we had Keely. We were lucky to get stationed here in 2012, and call North Carolina "home". We were both born and raised in different cities in eastern North Carolina, and we are super excited to get to spend some time here with our girls and introduce them to some of our favorite places that we had as children. Before I met my husband, I attended East Carolina University, where I earned my Bachelors Degree in Communications. I have a love for writing, and a huge passion for being a mom, so I am thrilled to have the opportunity to write about my experiences and exciting moments of this rocky ride that we all call 'Motherhood'.

Perhaps we have approached the Terrible Two’s a bit early, as my 19 month old little girl experienced another first this past week—Time-Out. It was bound to happen sooner or later. I just really wanted it to be later! I wanted to get the point across to her that she had done something that she wasn’t supposed to do. I honestly can’t even remember exactly what it was that she had done at this point, but I would bet that it was throwing a toy at her brother because that seems to be something she enjoys lately. I made her face the wall and stand there for a minute. It broke …

We finally decided to get a puppy for our girls. The type of dog was limited to some type of poodle due to my husbands allergies. I was shocked that poodles were so expensive and we thought a dog would be out of our reach financially, but we were so excited we were wrong. We found an affordable dog that was close to home. We decided to let our oldest child name him and we call named him peanut. He was the calmest puppy out of the bunch and we were happy to take him. It turns out he was not well taken care of and was infested with fleas …

I’ve always heard that when your pets bring an animal to you–dead or alive–that it is meant to be a gift for you because they love you. Well our cats must love us very much!

We had a problem shortly after we moved into this house about two years ago, where our cat was bringing lizards into the house through the kitty door. We have a little kitty door coming into the house from the garage, so the cats have free roam of the house and garage–where we keep their food and litter box. Lizards were coming into the garage through little cracks somehow, and the cat was catching them and bringing …

As a parent you get pulled in a lot of directions, but it is important to try to give your attention equally. Every child is different and require the same basic needs, but every child likes them completed differently. I have to consciously think about not always giving the squeaky wheel the attention. It takes a lot of effort to reward the good behavior and not constantly correcting bad behavior. I didn’t realize before kids how expensive it would be to treat our children equally.

It is hard as parents to be conscious of treating our children equally, but we have had to discuss it with our extended family as well. …

Before either of my children were born, we bought them each a lovey to snuggle with and to provide them comfort. Some may say that it isn’t good that we got them attached to something, but I would have to politely disagree. It has been there during surgeries and shots, and it is my daughter’s cue for night time. We picked something that was soft and had no hard pieces in it. My son has a bear and my daughter a tiger. We bought a few of each (and after this past weekend I am so thankful for that). We bought more than one so that we could switch them out to …

My children were baptized, but as they get older I feel I haven’t done much to expand on their religious growth. After looking at book stores and the library for books that explain God I realized it isn’t really something you learn, but rather experience. I have been looking for a way to discuss God with my children, but I realized after talking to another mom that I was really searching for a way to give my children more meaning in their own lives.

I want them to grow putting other people’s needs before their own instead of worrying about what they are going to do and what they are going …

Lucky for me, I have a lot of girlfriends who I went to college with who live close enough to visit every once in a while. This weekend, a few came down and stayed down in Morehead City, so I was able to get away and spend a little time with them. Girl’s weekends don’t always mean the same thing once you have kids as they did in college…

Friday night, we all went to dinner–just us girls. We met at a Mexican restaurant in Morehead City, and were able to all catch up and talk about what was going on in our lives–babies, husbands, new jobs, weddings, etc. It was a …

The summer is half over and the girls have not even been to a pool yet. We went to beach during low tide to play in the natural little pools, but the girls don’t know how to swim. My mother- in – law offered to pay for swim lessons, but I can’t find one that is available. I can’t believe they have been given a great opportunity and I can’t find a place to take them.

My oldest over heard me talking to her nana about taking swim lessons and she said she didn’t want to go and seemed very fearful. I don’t want to force her to do something she …

Since my kids are pretty picky eaters, like most kids their age, I sometimes have to get creative when it comes to mealtimes.

Mickey Mouse Rice!

I have tried doing different things to make food more fun so they are more likely to eat what I prepare–sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t! Thanks to Pinterest, there are TONS of ideas out there for making food fun. You can cut fruits and vegetables up into different shapes, and lay them out to make different fun things–like animals, people, shapes, etc. You can also include fun dips to make vegetables more tasty! Some dips that may make fruits and vegetables more …

Not sure if you have ever read the book, Five Minutes Peace. My guess, is probably not since it is a children’s book. Anyways, it’s about a Mommy to several elephants who follow her everywhere from the kitchen to the bathroom and all she wants if five minutes to herself. I couldn’t help but laugh as I read this book the other day to my kids because I could so relate to this Mom. As I am writing this, my daughter is laying against my arm helping me with my workout as I try to type each letter.